OSA at the UoC

The UoC offers OSAs for various undergraduate degree programmes and is constantly developing more. Check the Central Student Advisory Service’s website for an overview of the OSAs . You can also find the latest version of the enrolment regulations here, which lists the degree programmes for which the OSA certificate is mandatory for enrolment (see Appendix A). You will also find information on how to register/login to ILIAS and how to gain full access to the UoC’s OSA programmes.

All OSAs of the undergraduate degree programmes follow a uniform modular structure. After some general information and a brief welcome, users are taken to the overview page, where they can work on six modules in any order. Four of the six modules (Expectations of the degree programme, Personal interests, Situations in the daily life of a student, Subject-specific tasks) are interactive, while the other two (Future prospects, Further courses) only provide information. After completing all six modules, users can voluntarily take part in an evaluation of the OSA and are then be directed to the certificate of participation if this is required for an enrolment. All OSAs end with a short farewell. Click here for an overview of the basic structure of all OSAs at the UoC.

With the help of two psychologists from the Q³ team, the OSA content is developed by project groups made up of various stakeholders from the respective subject/degree programme, who act as experts for their degree programme. In order to best represent the different perspectives, the project groups (approx. 6–12 people) are made up of an equal number of professors, mid-level academic staff and students. As soon as the project group has been established, the development process of the OSA starts. The main task is the requirements analysis workshop. In several brainstorming phases, the project group members (i.e. the experts for the degree programme at the UoC) search for relevant expectations, interests and (non-)promising mindsets for their degree programme in accordance with Schuler’s (2006) experience-led intuitive method. The results form the basis for developing the OSA content further. As a next step, staff from the university’s CompetenceCentre E-Learning (CCE) are responsible for the technical development and implementation of the OSA in ILIAS. The duration of the development process, from the first kick-off meeting to the go-live of the OSA, is highly dependent on the time and staff allotted by the department and is therefore very individual. The department should expect to spend approximately 20-30 hours per person developing an OSA (excluding workshops and events).

By following DIN 33430 (standard for job-related aptitude assessment), a high level of quality is already maintained in the OSA development, with a systematic requirements analysis forming the basis of the content of every OSA (keyword: requirements analysis workshop). In addition, several feedback loops and user tests with people from the target group (usually students) before the OSA goes live help to ensure quality right from the start.

As soon as the OSA is available online, user feedback from the evaluation module is analysed once a year (following the enrolment phase in November/December) and reported back to the subject representatives. In order to keep the OSA up to date and correct, possible content and technical changes are implemented as soon as possible, as are new developments from the subject experts.

A comprehensive OSA concept for teacher training at the UoC is currently being developed. An OSA specifically designed for primary school teacher training will be available soon. OSAs for the other four types of teaching that can be studied at the UoC (i.e. special education, Berufskolleg, Haupt-, Real-, Sekundar- and Gesamtschule) will be developed successively together with representatives of the Center for Teacher Education (ZfL) and the different subjects.

In addition, OSA for Master’s degree programmes at the UoC will be developed soon as requested by various Faculties.

Besides these operational processes, the OSA team will also focus on the effectiveness of OSA. The OSA appears to be a useful tool according to the results of the evaluation modules completed immediately after the OSA. However, a more complex summative evaluation is required to focus on the longer-term effectiveness of OSA. The fact that more research must be conducted in this area was demonstrated, along with possible approaches and risks for summative evaluation, in a literature review by the OSA team, which was published in the journal Zeitschrift Wirtschaftspsychologie in summer 2024. The theoretical research base will be continued empirically through the large amount of data and various quantitative and qualitative data analyses. The aim is not only to make an important general contribution to research in this field, but also to provide an even stronger scientific basis for the arguments put forward to various university stakeholders.